Creating venues for poetry in support of healthy ocean communities

FLARE by Chelsea Lemon Fetzer

an old man walkedfrom the barbecue areaof the Beachview Resort Hotelto the water

he concentratedpast the obstacle of childrenwho stole shells from under his footor traced borderlinesin the sand with gull feathers

plump lovers bounded aheadwith some float device

at last hereached the Gulf of Mexico

stopped waist deepwet his arms from the shoulderdipped down to his earswhen his behind reachedthe water floorhe took a sitting position

this way the currenteventually drifted himlegs aheadback to shore

I still have not told youabout the old man’s hair

full cropno sign of recession

and in the beach’s reflective sunit was blinding whitelike a flare

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Chelsea Lemon Fetzer received her BA at Sarah Lawrence College, and her MFA in fiction at Syracuse University in 2008. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Stone Canoe, Callaloo, Tin House, and The Mississippi Review.She lives in Brooklyn and works as an instructor for PEN American Center’s Readers and Writers Program and leads weekly writing workshops for LGBTQ homeless youth through the New York Writers Coalition. In 2009 She founded The Create Collective, a non-profit orgaization working to bridge the gaps between artists and community based organizations by creating opportunities for dialogue, developing and coordinating arts workshops, and managing collaborative creative projects.